The Strand, Westminster

154-158 The Strand, Westminster. The voluntary conservation world, AMS included, reacted with uniform hostility to an application by King’s College in 2015 to demolish the 4 buildings on the right of this photograph.

They are key buildings within the Conservation Area, providing a varied townscape of human scale, squeezed between the two monoliths, the overbearing neighbour of 1971 to the left and the monumental elegance of Somerset House to the right.

We were aghast when Westminster granted consent on the back of initial advice by Historic England but, following a change of emphasis by HE, we expect the scheme to be modified at least to keep the facades.